cynicschism

       The bloodthirsty Zionist Entity is at it again, doing what it has done best since its land-stealing inception sixty years ago: Bringing death and destruction to innocent civilians and to those who will never accept its land grab and will fight it to the finish.

       Hamas, who pledge to bring the outlaw state of Israel to heel and return the land of Palestine to it rightful Arab owners, have started firing rockets into the territory usurped so long ago by the Israelis.  As usual, the barbaric Israelis react with disproportionate force, not because it is necessary, but simply because they can.  For Israel, as for their bigger bullying cousins in the U.S. , might makes right, and there is no doubt that, in purely technological terms, freedom fighters like Hamas can not come close to the Israeli military, which deals out its punishment rather indiscriminately. 

       The Israelis might wait a day or two and pretend to be interested in a cease fire, all the while preparing for an allout invasion of Gaza.  And in the war of tanks and planes against guns and rifles, it’s pretty clear who will win, at least in the short run.

       But it is doubtful that the Israeli’s goal of putting an end to Hamas permanently will be achieved, no more than their goal of destroying Hezbollah was achieved in the short Lebanon fiasco a few summers ago.  The Israelis have tried this before, and it never works.  Hamas will survive, and live another day to do battle against the Israeli land stealers, until their goals are accomplished.

       The Pittsburgh Steelers beat up on the Cleveland Browns, in the last regular season game for the 2008 season.  That’s really not too much to brag about, as Cleveland had a record of 4-11 going into the game.  But some teams get a little lazy when their playoff spot is already assured, but a win is still a win.  But amid the victory, there was also very bad news to report.   Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sustained a concussion deep into the second quarter, and was taken to the hospital for further treatment.

       Big Ben gave the thumbs up as he was wheeled off on a stretcher, but this is probably something that will take a while to all sort out as to his medical condition.  Byron Leftwich, backup quarterback, has come through well when he has had to step in for Big Ben, but he certainly isn’t as good.  Steelers’ fans will have to wait and see what the doctors say about Ben’s condition. Let’s hope it’s not serious.

       One piece of good news was the performance of Willie Parker in the Cleveland game.  Cleveland is hardly a defensive powerhouse, but Fast Willie did run for 116 yards.  That’s his best performance in quite a while.  We’ll see what he can do when the Steelers have to face a tougher defense than that put up by the Browns.  Now it looks like the Steelers won’t have Cleveland head coach Romeo Crennel to kick around anymore. He was let go the day after the Browns’ loss, at the end of a horrid season.  Wherefore art thou, Romeo?  Maybe we’ll find out in the next couple of months.  In the meantime, the Steelers have a bye week, so that may give much needed rest time to a team that truly needs it.  Go Steelers.

       As I mentioned in an earlier post about Christms carols, one of the slighly naughty ones was Santa Baby, sung by Eartha Kitt.  She would purr her way through this seductive Christmas classic, asking Santa for de luxe only.  Then the sad news came that Eartha Kitt had passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 81.

       Of course, Ms. Kitt was a well-known Broadway star, movie actress, and concert performer, and there is much to remember her for.  But the playing of Santa Baby, first recorded in 1953, every year during the Christmas season, was perhaps the thing she was best known for by most Americans.  The fact she passed away on that holiday is sadly ironic.

       It was time to pack away the Christmas carols until next Christmas anyway.  It is sad that Ms. Kitt passed away at the same time.  But Santa Baby will be back again next year, and he’ll be asked to hurry down the chimney again, just as he has been for the last fifty years.  And with the sultry voice of Eartha Kitt doing the asking, what Santa could refuse?

       Unfortunately for the Pittsburgh Steelers, their luck ran out last Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.  After two thrilling games where the Steelers won in the last few minutes, there was no such comeback against the Titans, and the Steelers lost 31-14.  In the NFL, you can only have so many come from behind, fourth quarter victories.  Sooner or later, things will catch up with you.  That’s what happened to the Steelers.  Too many offensive miscues and lack of scoring could not be remedied by the great defense.

       By losing to the Titans, the Steelers will not get to play all their playoff games at home, though they do have the first bye week.  The season ends this Sunday, when the Steelers play at home against the woeful Cleveland Browns.  After that, it’s a bye week and then on to the playoffs.  What are the Steelers chances for the rest of the playoffs?

       A look at their last few games can give one some idea of the roadblocks that stand between the Steelers and a Super Bowl win.  Obviously, the defense is one of the best in the entire league, so no complaints there.  The main problem will be the offense.  Big Ben is having a so-so year.  There have been a few great endings where he came through, but there have been too many games where his play is just average.  Too many interceptions, too many times holding onto the ball much too long.  Ben has also had a lot of injuries over the season, and though he seems all right most of the time, you have to wonder if they are starting to add up a little bit.  And the offensive line has sometimes not given him the protection any effective quarterback needs.  Whatever the reason, the offense has not played up to expectations.

       The running game has also been a problem.  Willie Parker is coming back from a broken leg.  He has had a few effective games, but he is way off his usual pace.  He has also had other injuries over the course of the season.  Mewelde Moore has been an excellent backup, having a number of solid runs, but the running game is still not as robust as usual.  Put these two major factors together, and it should be no surprise that of the eight division leading teams, Pittsburgh has the lowest number of total points.

       Of course, all is not lost, and the Steelers might still make it to the Super Bowl.  I certainly hope they do.  But right now, the odds look to be against it, for the main reason that the offense has just not stepped up enough to match the great defense, and as the Tennessee game showed, the defense can only do so much.  We’ll see what happens over the next month; that’s why they play the game.  Go Steelers.

       A strange story has come out over the last few days.  Sir Paul McCartney is now claiming that it was he and not John Lennon, who ‘politicized’ the Beatles and was the first member of the band to alert the others to the wrong of the Vietnam War.  Now, the story gets even more interesting.  McCartney claims he learned about the Vietnam War after a visit with Bertrand Russell, the famous British philosopher and peace activist.  Seems Sir Paul popped in on Russell one day and had a chat about world affairs.  During the course of the conversation, Russell alerted McCartney to the problems concerning U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  Then, later on, Beatle Paul told his bandmates, including Lennon, about the true facts about Vietnam.  So, according to McCartney’s account, it was he who was the original politically engaged Beatle.

       The story is excerpted from an interview McCartney gave to an English journal called Prospect.  Already, some critics are questioning McCartney’s account.  Did he really meet with Russell, and then influence the rest of the group?  Or is Sir Paul trying to do a little revisionist history, and putting himself over Lennon?  It was Lennon, with such songs as Revolution and Give Peace a Chance, who has always been seen as the most overtly political of the Beatles, both during his time in the group, and after their breakup.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about this new revision to accepted Beatles’ history in the next few weeks, as people try to puzzle out Sir Paul’s story.  Did he, or didn’t he?  Time will tell.

       It was forty years ago, but not today.  It was just a few weeks ago though,  that marked the fortieth aniversary of the release of the Beatles’ album The Beatles.  That is the actual name of this double album, but it quickly became known as the White Album, for its white monchrome cover. It was released on November 22, 1968, just in time for Christmas gift giving.

       Over the years, the record has usually produced two opposing critical reactions.  The negative is that, though there are some good songs on the record, there is too much filler and the album has too much variety to hang together well.  The positive reaction is that the wide variety of styles of songs on the record, and its mass of songs is what makes this a special Beatles’ record, unlike any other.  I go with the latter view.  The vast variety of songs and styles overwhelms any complaint about the lack of cohension of the record.  All criticisms shrink under the sheer mass of great material.

       It was not only some critics who fault the album for having just too many songs (30).  The album’s producer, George Martin, also though there was too much filler in the record, and wanted it to be a single disc of the best material.  He lost that argument to the Beatles, who wanted it to be a double-album.  But nobody, except for John Lennon, wanted the avant-garde collage Revolution 9 to appear on the record.  He eventually won that battle and the 8 minute plus song was put on the record.

       The variety of material on the album is truly stunning.  There are upbeat rockers like Back in the U.S.S.R and Helter Skelter, ballads like Julia and I Will,  good pop songs like Sexy Sadie and Birthday, a country feel like Ringo’s turn Don’t pass me by and Rocky Raccoon.  And for good measure all things in between, like I’m so tired, Blackbird, and Long, Long, Long and many more.

       Whether this is one of one’s favorite Beatles’s albums is a matter of taste, and as is well known, there is really no disputing taste.  But, IMHO, after forty years, The Beatles is one of the best records the Beatles or anyone else has ever put out.

       Dumbya decided to make one last trip to Iraq to oversee his handiwork there.  Why anyone would want to visit the scene of one of his most idiotic decisions is something that perhaps other politicians could explain.  But there he was, front and center, at a press confeence in Baghdad.  Now usually these press conferences are kind of dull.  The press asked questions, and the politicians evade answering them.  But then, seemily out of the blue, a shoe came hurtling toward Bushie Boy.  And then, a second one.  Now that’s something you don’t see every day.

       The fastballer was an Iraqi TV reporter who is none too happy about the continued U.S. military presence in his country, and it’s hard to blame him.  The thrown shoes carried a special message, since this is a sign of disrespect in Arab culture.  Not that Bushie knows much about that subject. From a slow-mo review of the video tape, it seems the reporter made one mistake.  He paused between the first and second shoe, it appears that pause was to take off his second shoe and throw it.  Perhaps, if he had thrown one shoe right after the other, things might have gone differently, and the mission would have been accomplished.  Instead both shoes sailed just over Bush’s head.  This incident probably marks the closest Dumbya has ever come to actual face-to-face combat.  As with his draft status, Bush evaded things once again.

       Watching the TV news coverage of that horrendous ice storm which hit New England last week, I was all comfortable and cozy in my warm living room.  I still felt sorry for those folks though.  I used to live in Vermont, and I can well remember similar, if not quite as dangerous, storms in the winter months.

       It would get so eerily quiet after the snow had fallen. Very few cars were out at night, and no one was going to be out walking.  Quiet and peaceful, which was the nice part.  Amidst the quiet, the first overburdened branch would crack and snap and fall into the snow.  Sometimes, others would follow.  Then it would be quiet again. And then, out of the distance, you might hear one lonely car driving by, and it would slowly disappear down the road and all would be quiet again.

       Another sound you might hear, besides the snapping of branches, is the slow slide of snow as it comes down from the roof and leaves large piles of snow by the side of the house, to be discovered in the morning.  While there are  truly marvelous sights and sounds to be found in a New England winter, it’s also good to be in more southern climes, sitting in the comfort of your house and watching the whole thing on TV, instead of seeing it out your window.

       The Pittsburgh Steelers clinched the AFC North division title and got a bye week before the playoffs yesterday, by beating the Baltimore Ravens 13-9.  It was another fourth quarter come from behind win for the Steelers.  They were down to Baltimore 9-6 with just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter.  Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger started the winning drive on his own eight yeard line.  He completed passes to get the Steelers down to the four yard line of the Ravens.  From there he threw a touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with less than two minutes left.  The play was close, and after a review the officials called it a touchdown.  The Steelers D kept the Ravens from doing any more scoring by intercepting a hail-Mary pass in the last seconds of the game.

       It certainly was the defensive struggle that most predicted, between two teams that definitely don’t like each other. Smashmouth football time.  Pittsburgh has had difficulty winning in Baltimore, and this was the first time since 2002 they won on the road against the Ravens.  Pittsburgh had a very tough schedule for their last five games, but so far, they’re 3-0, beating New England and then Dallas in another last minute thriller.  Next week they take on the Tennessee Titans, and finish the season against the Cleveland Browns.  But the worst part of the regular season is now over.

       The Steelers will certainly need the bye week.  There are a lot of banged-up players, including Big Ben and Fast Willie Parker, who could use an extra week off.  Now that the Steelers have clinched their division, Steelers’ fans can relax a bit, knowing their team is bound for the playoffs.  That means that for the last two games of the regular season, we can take it easy for just a while.  Go Steelers!

       Well, it’s been over a month since Obama was elected President, and the right-wing nutjobs, aka wingnuts, are still having trouble accepting the fact that he won and they lost.  They worked so hard with their numerous and untruthful smears about O, they can’t seem to fathom how all their lies could fail to influence the voting public, as they have so often in the past.  For whatever reason, their lie campaign didn’t work this time around, and they are not taking this failure lightly.

       Everywhere in nubjob world, there are still some little hopes to cling to, however delusionally.  One was that the Supreme Court would take up the idiotic lawsuit that claimed Obama was not a natural-born American and thus was prohibited by the Constitution from becoming President.  The Supremes didn’t bother with this.  Frowns all around on nutters’ faces.

       Would Obama use his middle name, Hussein, when taking the oath of office?  The wingnuts tried like the devil to make a big deal out of his middle name before the election, but no one was biting this time.  Seems no one really cared, but that fact never stops a true nutjober from trying.

       Then, just this week, the Illinois governor seemed to hand the nutters a fresh slant they might use.  Since Obama knew Blago, he had to be guilty of something also.  Sort of a retread of the old Bill Ayers’s strategy that McCain, Palin, and others trotted out during the election.  But knowing someone who may have committed a crime is not the same as doing it yourself, at least in the US.  So far, Blago isn’t looking much better than Ayers as a way to get to Obama.  Once again, the wingnuts went down swinging and cursing.

       They just can’t seem to catch a break.  All the phoney baloney they tried before the election failed, and now all their baloney after the election isn’t working either.  Someday, maybe in two or three years, the nutters will realize that Obama really is President, and they really lost big.  But don’t hold your breath waiting for this wake-up call.  In the meanwhile, the wingnuts will still be denying what happened on Nov. 4, and still be trying to find ways to believe it just didn’t happen.  In twleve-step program terms, they’re still in deep denial.  Sorry, nutjobers, you lose again.